80/35 headliner touts his experience in Des Moines

Tuesday, July 16, 2013 11:00 AM

Is Des Moines cool? It may be beyond cool, wrote the lead singer of David Byrne and St. Vincent, one of the headline performers at the 80/35 music festival. David Byrne, who made his name as a founding member of Talking Heads,wrote about his experienceat the festival and about being in Des Moines as the headliner concert on Friday night of the festival. His takeaway: "It's imperfect, but people here seem to have found a way of living that is not based around either extremes of manic striving or desperation. It may not be cool, but it might be beyond cool. Here among the winding creeks and fields of corn they may have arrived at some kind of secret satisfaction." He called the concertgoers "nice, sincere, unaffected," and in a bicycle ride around town, observed that "unlike ... many other towns we've passed through, there weren't signs of total poverty." Byrne went on to point out that "we nomads" see a lot of mid-sized towns, and "some of it is sad, but sometimes, like here, there seems to be a reason for optimism." We for one, are optimistic his experience was so cool, that he won't be burning down our house:Click here for a Tuesday morning music video courtesy David Byrne